By John Haughey

President Donald Trump said Monday that several nations will send warships to join the United States Navy in escorting commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz but expressed disappointment that several key NATO “big boys,” notably the United Kingdom and Germany, have not responded to his call for a joint operation.

“Numerous countries have told me they’re on the way,” he said at a Trump-Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts luncheon. ”Some are very enthusiastic about it. Some are in  countries that we’ve helped for many, many years.”

The president said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer denied his request for the British to send two aircraft carriers to the Arabian Sea or eastern Mediterranean.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been more cooperative, he said, dispatching an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean, which allowed the USS Gerald Ford to join the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea to focus on the strait.

“I have spoken to him. He’s been, on a scale of zero to 10, I’d say he’s been an eight,” Trump said.

Asked what countries have committed ships, the president said, “I’d rather not say yet, but we’ll be announcing” details soon.

“I have to tell you, we have some that are really enthusiastic. They’re coming already. They’ve already started to get there. You know, takes a little while to get there.”

The bottom line, he said, is the United States could do it itself.

“We don’t need anybody. We’re the strongest nation in the world,“ Trump said. ”We have the strongest military by far in the world. But it’s interesting. I’m almost doing it in some cases, not because we need them, but because I want to find out how they react. I’ve been saying for years that if we ever did need them, they won’t be there, not all of them, but they won’t be there.